"Why is it you persist, incessant mirror? Why do you, mysterious brother,Replicate the motion of my hand?Why does the reflection suddenly erupt from the shadow? (…)

-Fragment, To the Mirror, Jorge Luis Borges

Adriana Marmorek shows her work for the first time at NH Galería, in Cartagena de Indias. Ensayos para objetos de deseo (Tests for Desire Objects) comes to Cartagena introducing the modernity of her "Arquitectura del deseo" (“The Architecture of Desire”), an evolutionary and contemporary concept that defines the parameters of the Colombian artist’s creative activity.

In Marmorek’s brilliant career there is a clear line of work, a personal mark that evolves and flourishes around the concepts of desire and pleasure. Her artistic expression is not limited to the erotic element, but also incorporates social, historical and human elements fundamentally relative to the Western world’s imagination and to its questioning. All of these elements compose what she calls “The Architecture of Desire”.

Ensayos para objetos de deseo consists in six individual installations that analyze the idea of desire, from the crucial element of the mirror to the direct intervention of the spectator in the work of art. Mirrors serve as a conduct for voyeurism, vigilance, auto-analysis and reflection, and as a converging element for centuries of artistic tradition and sociocultural assimilations. The spectators’ participating action contributes to the ultimate and utmost complete creation. "The Red King was part of my dream, of course—but then I was part of his dream, too!,” says Alicia in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (Lewis Carroll).

The installation Construcción sensible (Sensitive Construction) urges the spectator to take an active and sensual role, by introducing himself in a place where he looses his sense of reality and space. Marmorek also encourages personal evocation by sticking small buttons to the soft red panels, made with photographs of eyes and body parts, which look at the spectator while he is looking at them.

In her Cofres (Chests), the artist repeats the provocation, forcing the spectator to come closer and examine, to take the initiative and look through the looking-glass. Marmorek presents an idea of the human being that refers to its prying nature. In our scrutinizing we find the possibility of the knowledge of, and encounter with, the new or even with what is semi-hidden.

Through Espejo de Vigilancia (Surveilance Mirror), Marmorek considers the examining and controlling condition of mirrors. She uses the symbiotic visual relationship between two security convex mirrors, a relationship without which it would be impossible to compose the image that emerges from them. The spectator continues to build the image himself in Anverso (Obverse). In it, there is a juxtaposition of fragmented images that build a whole image. Again, there is a stimulating element that pushes and urges us towards the work, towards participating in it.

With Ensayo para un objeto de deseo (Test For a Desire Object), Marmorek culminates her idea of creation by association between the artist, the work and the spectator. It is a praxinoscope, in which the spectator watches the image’s movement, producing a mental photographic construction.

Opening the doors to her cyclic speech, Besos Guardados (Keepsake Kisses) is an ongoing project in which the different meanings of a kiss are recollected in rest tubes that will later acquire the shapes of the described kiss. This way, the glass turns into the kiss itself in relics that are desire-objects.

In Espejos de vigilancia (Surveilance Mirrors), the art critic and curator Ricardo Arcos-Palma says, "Adriana Marmorek’s photographs become real objects in which the mirrored character opens a breach in front of our own desire, turned into a gaze.” It is that mirrored space that takes a new dimension at NH Galeria, inviting us to enter a creation dream and offering a unique opportunity to experience live art in complete connection with the artist and our own being.

Adriana Marmorek was born in Bogotá in 1969. She developed her career around publicity and television, from which she would later take certain elements to rethink through the artistic practice. She got her Masters in Plastic and Visual Arts from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Her work has been exhibited in several museums and institutions, not only on a national level, but also in countries such as Ecuador, Argentina, Italy, Belgium, Austria and the U.S. Her works are represented in several private and public collections. In 2007 she participated in the Salón de Arte Joven-Artecámara, and in 2010 she was nominated for the Premio Bienal de Arte de Bogotá. She represented Colombia in the art fair ARCO Madrid 2015.

"Why is it you persist, incessant mirror? Why do you, mysterious brother,Replicate the motion of my hand?Why does the reflection suddenly erupt from the shadow? (…)

-Fragment, To the Mirror, Jorge Luis Borges

Adriana Marmorek shows her work for the first time at NH Galería, in Cartagena de Indias. Ensayos para objetos de deseo (Tests for Desire Objects) comes to Cartagena introducing the modernity of her "Arquitectura del deseo" (“The Architecture of Desire”), an evolutionary and contemporary concept that defines the parameters of the Colombian artist’s creative activity.

In Marmorek’s brilliant career there is a clear line of work, a personal mark that evolves and flourishes around the concepts of desire and pleasure. Her artistic expression is not limited to the erotic element, but also incorporates social, historical and human elements fundamentally relative to the Western world’s imagination and to its questioning. All of these elements compose what she calls “The Architecture of Desire”.

Ensayos para objetos de deseo consists in six individual installations that analyze the idea of desire, from the crucial element of the mirror to the direct intervention of the spectator in the work of art. Mirrors serve as a conduct for voyeurism, vigilance, auto-analysis and reflection, and as a converging element for centuries of artistic tradition and sociocultural assimilations. The spectators’ participating action contributes to the ultimate and utmost complete creation. "The Red King was part of my dream, of course—but then I was part of his dream, too!,” says Alicia in Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (Lewis Carroll).

The installation Construcción sensible (Sensitive Construction) urges the spectator to take an active and sensual role, by introducing himself in a place where he looses his sense of reality and space. Marmorek also encourages personal evocation by sticking small buttons to the soft red panels, made with photographs of eyes and body parts, which look at the spectator while he is looking at them.

In her Cofres (Chests), the artist repeats the provocation, forcing the spectator to come closer and examine, to take the initiative and look through the looking-glass. Marmorek presents an idea of the human being that refers to its prying nature. In our scrutinizing we find the possibility of the knowledge of, and encounter with, the new or even with what is semi-hidden.

Through Espejo de Vigilancia (Surveilance Mirror), Marmorek considers the examining and controlling condition of mirrors. She uses the symbiotic visual relationship between two security convex mirrors, a relationship without which it would be impossible to compose the image that emerges from them. The spectator continues to build the image himself in Anverso (Obverse). In it, there is a juxtaposition of fragmented images that build a whole image. Again, there is a stimulating element that pushes and urges us towards the work, towards participating in it.

With Ensayo para un objeto de deseo (Test For a Desire Object), Marmorek culminates her idea of creation by association between the artist, the work and the spectator. It is a praxinoscope, in which the spectator watches the image’s movement, producing a mental photographic construction.

Opening the doors to her cyclic speech, Besos Guardados (Keepsake Kisses) is an ongoing project in which the different meanings of a kiss are recollected in rest tubes that will later acquire the shapes of the described kiss. This way, the glass turns into the kiss itself in relics that are desire-objects.

In Espejos de vigilancia (Surveilance Mirrors), the art critic and curator Ricardo Arcos-Palma says, "Adriana Marmorek’s photographs become real objects in which the mirrored character opens a breach in front of our own desire, turned into a gaze.” It is that mirrored space that takes a new dimension at NH Galeria, inviting us to enter a creation dream and offering a unique opportunity to experience live art in complete connection with the artist and our own being.

Adriana Marmorek was born in Bogotá in 1969. She developed her career around publicity and television, from which she would later take certain elements to rethink through the artistic practice. She got her Masters in Plastic and Visual Arts from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Her work has been exhibited in several museums and institutions, not only on a national level, but also in countries such as Ecuador, Argentina, Italy, Belgium, Austria and the U.S. Her works are represented in several private and public collections. In 2007 she participated in the Salón de Arte Joven-Artecámara, and in 2010 she was nominated for the Premio Bienal de Arte de Bogotá. She represented Colombia in the art fair ARCO Madrid 2015.

Adriana Marmorek exhibition at NH Galería, Cartagena de Indias

Get an inside look at NH Galeria's new exhibition, Adriana Marmorek: Ensayos para objects de Deseo, on view through August 23, 2015 in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.